Past Event

Steamboat Springs  In some ways, the Nov. 19 Hayden School District Athletic Gala is about providing the necessities.

Uniforms, for example, will be high on the wishlist after the fundraiser, the first of what Hayden athletics director Tony Rosso said will be an annual event.

Football helmets and other important safety equipment also will be on the list.

“With the new laws that no helmet can be more than 10 years old, we lose 25 helmets right like that,” Rosso said. “We want to get back to having a rotation for new uniforms. Now, whoever’s (helmet) looks the most ragtag, we try to piece together the money.”

But if all goes as planned and the big-ticket items that will be available via auction are scooped up as expected, some of the money will be used in decidedly unique ways.

“We want to send each senior athlete out with a $500 scholarship,” Rosso said. “If someone is willing to go off and continue their education after giving four years of dedicated service to Hayden High School, after how much time is put into practices at this small school, when we get a chance, it’s important to take the opportunity to recognize them.”

It seems ambitious and generous, enough so that it might have “athletes” from across the county checking to see if they have any eligibility remaining. But consider the loot to be auctioned at the event, and it seems possible.

There will be plenty there to catch many a Routt County supporter’s eye. The gala begins at 5 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Routt County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children younger than 12 or $30 for families of four.

There will be dinner, silent and live auctions of items large and small, and all proceeds will support the high school and middle school athletic departments.

The auction will be highlighted by a 1966 Chevy truck restored at the Babson-Carpenter Career and Technical Education Center in an auto body and refinishing class led by Kevin Kleckler.

There will be three 8-by-10-foot steel snowmobile trailers with tilt beds; one 7-by-20-foot flatbed trailer; a 7-by-14-foot utility trailer; and several steel picnic tables, all made at the center by Hayden High School students.

Four hours of welding work by the group also will be put on the auction block.

“They’ve been welding stuff to get football helmets and uniforms, working their butts off for this,” Rosso said. “People need to know these kids don’t just sit around and wait for us to hand them stuff.”